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Killer Mike’s “Anywhere But Here,” off the album R.A.P. Music is a elegy to inner city America and specifically the victims of police brutality, like Sean Bell and Kathryn Johnston.

Mike moves in the song from New York to Atlanta, using both examples of the ways that blacks are still suffering in US cities and thus need an escape suggested by the track title.

Here’s how Killer Mike sums up his own thoughts on “Anywhere But Here,” from a track by track breakdown published in Spin:

“There is no better place for a black man in the world than Atlanta and there’s no better place with more opportunity for kids than New York. Yet, both of these cities have oppression. You don’t find a whole lot of native Atlantans in Atlanta and same in New York because they’re trying to escape. It’s about that mentality. Like ‘Jojo,’ both songs start with guys doing reasonably well but there is something unfulfilled and they just need to get out of their city. It’s about an emotion — where I’ve been and all I’ve gained is not good enough, and i’m supposed to be somewhere else.”